Beach House Lofts, 1842 Queen St E: Award-Winning 17-Foot Beaches Lofts

Beach House Lofts is what I show buyers who want the Beaches but cannot face a house with a furnace and a roof to worry about. It is a three-storey building of about a dozen suites on Queen East just west of Woodbine, with ceilings of up to 17 feet and outdoor space for every suite. It is also small, walk-up and rarely for sale, and you should know what that means. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A small building that won a city design award

Most condo buildings on Queen East in the Beaches are anonymous. This one won something. In 2009, Streetcar’s Beach House Lofts and its neighbour Academy Lane Lofts together took an Award of Excellence at the Toronto Urban Design Awards, in the private mid-rise category for buildings in context. William Hurst Architects is credited as the architect, with Streetcar handling construction.

That award tells you what the building is trying to do. It does not try to stand out from Queen Street. It sits on a long, narrow lot above ground-floor retail, built in reclaimed brick with big windows, so it reads as part of the main street rather than a condo dropped onto it. That restraint is why it has aged well.

Beach House was the second of the pair. Academy Lane, next door at 1852, is a conversion of an old bowling alley, and Beach House followed as a new-build soft loft. If you like one, look at the other too; between them they are a big share of the small-building condo stock on this stretch of Queen.

Seventeen-foot ceilings and outdoor space

The headline feature is volume. One local loft specialist describes ceilings of up to 17 feet, which is two storeys of air in a lot of plans. That is the kind of space that lets you put in a sleeping loft, hang serious art or simply feel like you are not in a condo at all. Ask for the specific suite’s ceiling height, because not every unit will have the full 17 feet.

Suite sizes run from about 615 to 1,748 sq ft according to that same source, so the mix stretches from compact one-bedrooms to large two-level suites. Every suite has a balcony or terrace. In the Beaches, where the whole point is being outside, that matters more than any amenity room.

The building is laid out in a line, with suites strung along the length of the lot above the shops. In a building like this, light and outlook can vary a lot from one suite to the next depending on which way it faces and what sits across the street or behind it. Visit in the morning and the late afternoon if you can.

Big windows and tall ceilings have a cost side too. Volume takes more energy to heat and cool, and with heat and air conditioning in the common fee, every owner shares that bill. That is one more reason to look at the building’s utility costs in the budget, not just your own suite.

No elevator, and other small-building realities

There is no elevator. For a young couple that is a non-issue. For a downsizer who wants to stay for twenty years, or anyone carrying groceries and a stroller up to the top floor, it can be a deal-breaker. Be honest with yourself about this one before you fall for the ceilings.

With about a dozen suites, every shared cost is split a dozen ways. A new roof, brick repointing or work on the retail level can hit owners harder here than in a larger building. Read the reserve fund study and status certificate carefully, and ask whether the commercial units below contribute to shared costs.

Living above retail is also worth thinking through. Find out what businesses are on the ground floor and what uses the declaration allows there. A quiet shop is easy to live over; a busy restaurant with late hours and exhaust fans is a different experience, and tenants can change.

The location is the easy part. You are on Queen East in the Beaches, near Woodbine, with the main-street shops and restaurants at your door and the beach and the boardwalk to the south. The automatic panel on this page covers transit, schools and parks.

Pricing and fees

Beach House Lofts trades so rarely that condos.ca does not publish a reliable building average per square foot. Two suites were listed at the time of writing, asking from about $655,000 to $1,599,000, which mostly tells you how wide the suite sizes are here. With so few sales, I would price any suite against recent sales in Academy Lane next door and other small loft buildings in the Beaches.

Monthly fees on the current listings run from the mid-$700s to almost $1,900, depending on size. The fee includes common elements, heat, water, air conditioning, building insurance and parking, which is about as complete as condo fees get. Once you account for parking, heat and cooling being bundled in, the real monthly cost compares well with a newer building where you pay those yourself.

The value question in a building this small is less about the fee and more about the reserve fund. A healthy fund in a 12-suite building is reassuring. A thin one, or a large project coming up, can change the maths fast.

Building specifications

Amenities at Beach House Lofts

There are no shared amenity rooms, which is normal for a building this size. The real amenities are the private terraces, BBQs allowed on them, parking in the fee and the Beaches itself, with Queen East and the boardwalk doing the work a gym and party room would do elsewhere.

Jatin’s honest take on Beach House Lofts

Beach House Lofts — frequently asked questions

Looking at Leslieville, Riverdale, the Beaches, Danforth and Leaside more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.